...For the Love of Fine Words.
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Monday, June 27, 2011

If by Rudyard Kipling

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Some thoughts...

On a personal note:

I first read this poem to my sons a couple of years ago. It seemed to pass right over their heads. I guess they were too young. Perhaps it's time to give it another shot. In an age that seems to give inordinate significance to the excellence of a man being a metrosexual, it's worth the time to consider what manhood really means.

I like the emphasis given to the need for the delicate balance between personal integrity and social adjustment:

In short, be better than the society you find yourself in, but without making too big a deal about it.

Wisdom -If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
Hopes, Opinions, Victory, Defeat - these too shall pass.

Patience –

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

This is the Miranda warning that applies to all speech, anything that we say may be misunderstood, misrepresented, and misquoted. It’s better to be resigned to that from the start.

Resilience –

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

Our life’s efforts are as vulnerable as sand castles on the beach. Let’s keep building anyway.

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If there’s one quality that separates the men from the boys, it has to be this one -

Fortitude.

This last stanza sums it all – Character.

if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

I personally doubt that the meek will inherit the earth. History has consistently proven otherwise.

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

It’s almost a universal definition that manhood is synonymous with ‘strength’ and ‘courage’. But those two stalwart virtues could themselves use some further elucidation in this context. I think Kipling has done a fine job of that here.

On an aside, if I had been so fortunate as to have a daughter, I would have read this to her too. Maybe she wouldn't have fidgeted as much.